Time Lords and Indie Gamers

Tomorrow is the start of my sale on the All Things Lovely website!
It's running from September 30th-October 2nd so don't miss out on getting a print!
Here's the link for you guys: http://allthingslovelydailydeals.com/

Lots and lots of adventures this week!
First, Vince and I went on a trip to the Crandall Print Museum down in Provo. We basically went on a time machine from the past and then to the present at the Mandate Press to see the evolution of printing (Time Lord time!!!) Check out his blog for pictures.
The trip to the Mandate Press was pretty inspiring because here was a guy who was actually a printmaker by profession and living off of his hobby of letterpress work.
Even though the majority of their business comes from printing business cards he's still living the dream! It was pretty exciting to see a different kind of letterpress press in action.



I'm nearly caught up on my 1 print: 14 days challenge! I've finished the third one that was meant to be done last time. It's a 12x16 inch woodcut relief print:

It's up for sale in my shop so grab him while he's hot!

Shop linkage

I've also finally finished the image for the next print in my 1:14 print challenge!

This guy has come a long way from where he originally started. I'm pretty happy with how the designed turned out.

I'm committed to getting this guy printed this upcoming week and then I'll be back on schedule in my 1:14 challenge. 

This week's theme was pretty much: Indie games. Thursday night, after the print museum time travel adventure, we journeyed back down to southern Utah in Orem to hang out with a bunch of indie game developers and demoed vid gams. Vince also demoed a couple of his games and it went pretty well.

Saturday we dropped in on the indie game sneak peek held in sort of Sugarhouse Salt Lake where we got to meet even more awesome people. 

Like I said before, if you need inspiration to get serious about your work and living the dream talk to an indie game developer. These people work hard for what they want to do.

And they do it. 

It's been a new and very good experience for me to attend these kind of events. Normally I'm all for spending the night watching Doctor Who, but it's been really helpful for me to get out and meet these folks and go to these kind of events. You'd be surprised by what kind of connections you can make or what kind of helpful advice you can get from someone.

I met an illustrator who was designing and making his own game (based off of the game Siphon Spirit). But it features these cute bunny fox characters and an interesting slider puzzle concept.

He didn't have any business cards so he drew me one:

So adorable, right?

I'm not seeing his game up on the Califer Games website but definitely check out their work.

Califer Games

I've also got the link up for the video game I created in the game jam last week located here:

The Struggle.

***There are images on the majority of the pages! Depending on your connection please allow 30 seconds-1 minute for them to load!*** 

Check it out!

Utah Indie Game Jam

What a crazy weekend! It almost feels like a dream.
I wasn't able to get my print done to make up for lost time last week unfortunately. I don't want to make a big deal about it because I did some major working this weekend. I'll be able to play catch up in the next couple of weeks with two prints that are almost finished.

This weekend I attended the Utah Indie Game Jam with Vince!
What's a game jam?
A game jam is when you and a bunch of other people make video games in 48 hours.
Crazy? Insane? Yes. But! It was a pretty fun experience and it was great to be in an environment with people that are like you and you're forced to work your butt off to come out with a complete product.
You could choose to team up with other people or do it by yourself. I opted to team up with myself.

Some background info:
I have never made a game before. Ever. Never even tried coding, illustrating for one, or designing. I just played them.
So it was a pretty new and interesting learning experience to be surrounded by people who pretty much live, eat, and breath software and games.

The game I created was made with the program Twine and it was just a simple choose your own adventure type of game.
I did 100% of the illustrations and coding myself! And it actually turned out pretty great.
I'm not sure how to upload it to the blog itself but it will be posted on the Utah Indie Game Jam website so you can play it for yourself!

I'm really proud that I was able to finish my game. I was worried that I wouldn't get it done. And during the event I was pretty tempted to just not bother finishing (however I gave my pitch in front of everyone so I definitely had to finish it).
I actually even ended up winning the prize of best art! How neat-o is that?
I'm really happy Vince convinced me to go. I met a few interesting and really awesome, good hearted people. I met people that are striving for, and working hard to achieve their dreams and goals.
Want to get motivation to succeed?
Hang out and talk to a person who's designing and making video games.
Those people are the real deal.
There's just something about hanging out and being around fellow nerds that's very comforting.
I felt more comfortable and at home being at the Game Jam than I did at the Granary Row festival (which didn't go super well. I only sold two prints and it wasn't as busy as I thought it'd be ((we ended up leaving early to go back to the game jam. Lesson learned!)))
Here's a glimpse at some of the images and one that will become a future print (can you guess which one?)
Play the game to see more and see better high resolution images!

Upcoming Sales!

I'll be having two opportunities for you guys to grab one of my posters towards the end of this month!
The first sale will be at Granary Row this coming Saturday from 6-11pm.
You can check out the facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/598001360250586/.
So come on out and say hello!

The second is a sale partnered with All Things Lovely!
You can check out their site right here: http://www.allthingslovelydailydeals.com/
It will be running from Sept. 30th-Oct. 2nd so if you want a print for a little bit cheaper you can grab one there!

Tell all of your friends!

-Shirley

Completely adorable birthday present!

This deserved a post of it's own.
My sweetheart boyfriend made this pixel animation for my birthday today.  :) :) :)

Here's one he did for me when we first met:

He's so awesome at pixel animation! :) :) :)

1 Print: 14 Day Challenge Print #2

He's finally here!
Meet: Raspberry Tea Dragon.

Although his hair turned out more of a red wine colour so he might just be the Red Wine Tea Dragon.
He's print number two in my one print for every 14 days challenge.
You can get a copy of one at my shop here.

I've also been working on a woodcut for my printmaking class. I finished season 3 of Game of Thrones the other night which inspired the Dire Wolf dragon critter I drew for this.
I'm also trying to incorporate people into my illustrations now so as to work on my drawing people skills.

Busy busy busy! Gotta catch up! (and catch 'em all!)

2013 Salt Lake Comic Con and Printing Trauma

Yowza! It's been a minute since I last posted! There's been a lot of shenanigans these past couple of weeks.

Fall semester started so that's one more thing added to the plate. I've decided to switch my BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) emphasis from 2D design to Visual Communications. People ask my why, and I feel that it'll be more beneficial to my road of becoming a freelance illustrator.
I want to tell people that just because it's more of a graphic design area it doesn't mean I can't apply my love for printmaking and poster design towards the field.

I'm going to miss the deadline for the next print of the two weeks, because of machine error (darn those printer spray head thingy-ma-jigs!) I'm really bummed out because I want to keep on schedule and build momentum. But that just means I can get down and dirty and get two prints done within two weeks. I refuse to give up on my goal!

Here's a WIP of Foo Dog. He's been getting a little bit of a design lift.

Last week I was able to do the 100, 2 colour Animal Collective print run all by myself.
I think I did it just to prove a point that I could get it done. Needless to say, I would give myself a D+ if it were a test.
I was able to get all of the prep work done properly and even mixed the colours right.
Printing itself?
It was pretty traumatising.
When I print my own work I feel pretty relaxed and happy. But printing for Travis and getting a job done for him? It was pretty stressful.
But it wasn't stressful because I didn't know what I was doing.
It was stressful because if I messed up the print, it wasn't my work that was getting ruined.
It was his.
And boy did I mess up (I hate to admit).
I was off to a good start, but working on the second colour killed me and my hands.
I had issues with the registration of the two colours, clamps coming loose, the counter-weight to the pulley not functioning correctly...it was a disaster. I think I fudged 15-20 prints out of 100.
And while that might not seem like too many, it is. I still feel pretty ashamed and bad about it.
But at the same time, it was a great learning experience.
I learned that:
I really didn't need to prove a point to anyone. And that it's ok to not be perfect. I'm still learning.
I can't do a complete 100, 2 colour print run quite yet without shredding up my hand and being on the verge of three blisters.
That even though it was a horrible experience and I wanted to cry my eyes out when I got home I still love the process and work.
You never know if you really love doing something until it gets difficult. If you still enjoy it through the rough times then you truly love it.
Although, I will admit that I put off posting on the blog because of this.
I mean, who wants to proclaim to the world about how they failed and ruined lives?
Ok maybe not the last bit. But I definitely didn't feel like writing about it.
I didn't want people to think that I wasn't perfect.
But I feel that it's necessary to write about my failures and be honest about it because it's a learning experience.
And I also want to be more honest with myself about making mistakes and being imperfect.

Salt Lake City Comic Con was also this week! I hope some of you were able to go and experience the magic!
I was extremely impressed by the turn out and the event itself. It was like a small slice of the San Diego Comic Con. Vince and I met a lot of awesome local artists and illustrators (I was a bit shy so he did way more talking than me) that have helped inspire me. I'm even thinking of getting my own table next year.
One of my favourite artists that I met was Candace Jean. I love how her illustration style is so soft.
I adored one of her pieces so much that I had to take this handsome fellow home:

I'll be posting more artists that I came across over the next few posts.
These artists are the ones that really inspired me to continue working hard, and to work harder.
I hope you guys have had a super September so far!
Fall will soon be here. And then winter is coming.

-Shirley

Awkward moment of the week: Emailing a teacher and then calling them by the wrong name in a reply.